9am-11:30pm-San Antonio One Stop Shop
Refreshed and ready for the next stop on our tour: San Antonio, TX.
We were welcomed by a sharp set of government officials, and starting the interaction was David McGowen & Jesus Garza. Mr. McGowen touched on how the city is heavy on historic preservation along the river, and has been working outside of downtown to "blockbust" and break up plighted areas, while attempting to expand the healthy neighborhoods. Approximately $300M of Federal Stimulus funds have been secured by San Antonio, and they look to implement the spending to redevelop over the next 5 years. Mr Garza revealed that land use management around the current military bases is a vital topic on their agenda, primarily implemented as a part of one of the "sector planning" approaches by the city. West San Antonio has experienced an immense amount of new development and sprawl, and will be the area for new growth for the next 30 years, says Garza. Inner city re-developers are needed to stimulate the plighted CBD and surrounding areas, and to date, there hasn't been more than a couple developers interested in building mid-rise/mixed-use developments. The city provides a few incentives for inner city redevelopment, such as waiving of all city fees and providing the comprehensive "One Stop Shop" to expedite the re-development process. The form based zoning is implemented through the SMART program to replenish the inner city. An interesting fact to note: San Antonio has 2x the population of Austin, and 1/2 the GDP output=High Skilled workers needed. There is a PID being implemented in downtown to clean up, maintain, landscape, and pay for the "Amigos," who are guys that help tourists find where they're going.
Transitioning into topics covered by the architecture department, we got a visit by Betty Feldman, the City Architect. She gave us her vivid background in a brief bio, and dove right into current projects and regulations/directions the city has to offer. Her position on the failed 1221 Broadway project was indeed interesting. Since his project went under, a popular local developer by the name of Ed Cross has since taken control of it. Feasibility was the biggest issue for Geis's project, and hopefully Ed can turn the concrete slab around into something income producing for both the city and himself. Her efforts of current have been directed to building out accessibility/growth to the Ft. Sam area, as the US Dept of Defense recently transferred the whole medical services training professional facilities over. Her attempts to use TIGER grants to create and extend streetcars over to the Ft. Sam area have also begun, and it seems her tenacity will land great results for the City of San Antonio. An interesting characteristic to note is that just as Austin, with it's Green Building Code, San Antonio has adopted a similar uniform code called "Mission Verde." The city ordinance identifies sustainability standards (similar to LEED characteristics) and pairs is with historical preservation requirements (very stringent). As we wrapped up the discussion with Mrs. Feldman, an active mid-aged gentleman strolled in with a bicycle helmet on, attempting to catch his breath.
This was Lawrence Doxsey, Director at the Office of Environmental Management. He brought a wealth of energy and information on all facets of sustainability. He advocated the PACE (properly assessed clean energy) program, and gave us insight into how the city is involved. The city has bonded the program, and loans the money back out to homeowners willing to retrofit things in their home that promote sustainability. The program helps to incentivize private banks to loan due to the city's insurance (usually 15yr terms). He mentioned that 91 of the city's fleet are hybrid vehicles, and that the garbage fleet is fueled with compressed natural gas. To wrap up the visit to the city, we had a discussion with a couple of code officials.
Sylvia Cortez & Ray Herrera, Code Enforcement
With a tremendous amount of detail needed to be paid attention to on historical projects, the city has implemented a Historic Board to oversee any changes, new or redeveloped. The Joint Plan Review works with developers who are working on older buildings and work very close to the code officials to ensure every single historic building is kept in pristine condition if being redeveloped. The system is a complaint-driven format, where if a change is made there usually is no trigger that prompts code officials to raise a red flag and do an inspection. Other than those San Antonio specific methods, everything else seemed to be basic and uniform like other cities it's size.
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